Resonance: The Titles

1. Another Face of the Beauty
In reality, most people tend to notice only the primary colors. They mostly like the main colors like red, blue, yellow. Many people tend to like simple structures of music with bright chords and melodies. The reality is more complicated; actually there are much rather mixed colors with complex shading like reddish, greenish grey, etc. The same with the music. This composition has a lot of shaded colors. While listening to the album, I found a lot of colors that I had never seen and I heard a lot of moods that I had never before felt. Our music is like this reality; complicated, unpredictable, floating between tonality and atonality and full of complicated colors, shading, and moods; that is: another face of the beauty.

2. The Totem, No. 1
3. The Totem, No. 2
Respect for all the native people to whom the totems had a distinctive respect and meaning concerning the universe.

4. Song of the Wind
Imagine a hermit. What can be the music for a hermit? After a while, all the sounds from nature become a special language; a special way of metacommunication between nature and the human soul. The Song of the Wind recalls this thought.

5. Intense Chemistry
A feeling which can be experienced very rarely when two sensitive musicians start to play freely improvised music and the result is like a composed piece. This is only made possible by intense chemistry. The reason why they are able to do this is the very intense common inner resonance. This happens when Kevin and I play together.

6. Long Tale of the Ocean
For me, the ocean is a living being. I sit down on the beach, and I just listen to what she tells me.

7. A Solitary Cypress
When I meet a musician who goes to the contrary direction according to the mainstream with his art, for me this is a solitary cypress.

8. Two Pilgrims; One Path
When I meet that above mentioned kind of musician and we play something very spontaneous and honest music together I often see ourselves like two pilgrims going along on the same path.

9. Tanz Grotesque, No. 1
10. Tanz Grotesque, No. 2
11. Tanz Grotesque, No. 3
The dance is like a sweet brother and/or sister of the music. Almost all the words that we use for describing the music can be used for describing the dance. When a music is grotesque, the dance should also be grotesque.

12. First Confluence
This title is for eternalizing the moment when we played the first notes on our baritone guitars; this piece is the first composition we recorded together. Actually this piece is untouched; nothing taken away and nothing added to it. It is a sound sculpture of our first confluence.

13. Fantasy for Door Harp
Kevin has a harp on the door which leads to the studio. This alerted us to the arrival of any visitors. Its sound set fire to my imagination, and I found its delicate sound to fit perfectly as the contrast to the sound of our thunderous baritone beasts. At the end of the track, the sense of fading away into the distance is achieved via the phenomenal space simulator, the Bricasti M7.

--Sándor Szabó
Vac, Hungary
September 2007

The Title of the Album

Selecting an album title can be a long and arduous process.  Ideally, a title is desired which will make a statement about the music on the album.  Perhaps something descriptive of the compositions; nothing too obvious; perhaps something literary or referential.  It seems like a simple concept, but one which can require months of thought.  For a few months prior to the scheduled recording sessions, I thought about words or phrases for album titles which would describe the deep; almost spiritually artistic chemistry between Sándor and I.  Various words and phrases came to mind, but the one word which just kept coming back to me was resonance.  I knew that Sándor and I did indeed have a rare and unique artistic resonance between us; the whole of which was greater than the sum of its parts.  I considered a few other titles, and even tried out a few on Sándor, saving Resonance until I'd exhausted all the other possibilities.  I wanted to get his opinions and reactions on each before I moved on, in case one of the candidates held more meaning or interest than was initially apparent.  Sándor's reaction to the other choices were positive; yet lukewarm.  As soon as I said resonance, he said, "Yes!  That is the title!"  

And so it is.

--Kevin Kastning
Massachusetts, USA
September 2007